9News was honored with two Walter Cronkite Awards today for its excellence in TV political journalism. The “Fact Check” feature conducted through the political season was cited as exemplary.

The awards, given biennially since 2000, recognize compelling storytelling, accuracy and service to citizens during election season. Specifically, KUSA’s fact-checking of political advertising and Brandon Rittiman and Kyle Clark’s season-long debate moderating were recognized. The jury said “KUSA continues to produce the best fact checking segments on local TV” and “Rittiman’s presentation is exemplary: “He doesn’t rush through complicated material,” the jury said, “he gives viewers time to absorb the images, the text and his findings.”

Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania, said, “KUSA’s commitment to fact checking is unrivaled.” The station produced 55 fact-checking segments in 2014.

“KUSA made the commitment to deeper political analysis over the last 10 years. 9NEWS
introduced Truth Tests, hosted innumerable debates, and produced specialized content including ‘voice of the voter’ segments and a panel discussion featuring 12 undecided voters as just a part of that commitment. Kyle and Brandon worked long hours to produce this expansive and important content,” said Patti Dennis, Gannett vice president and former news director of 9NEWS.

The awards were announced by by the Norman Lear Center at the University of Southern California’s
Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. Along with KUSA, Austin’s KXAN was honored in the large-market station category.

Recently named KUSA news director Christy Moreno, who succeeds Patti Dennis after a winning 18-year run, will assume her new duties Jan. 12. “It’s a very big jump” from Knoxville to Denver, she acknowledged.

At WBIR she oversaw a newsroom of 65 people; at KUSA she’ll run a newsroom of just over 100. In Knoxville, they’ve been busy covering a school bus accident this week. In Denver, breaking news regularly rises to national attention. But throughout the interviewing process, Moreno said, there were “so many similarities” between the Knoxville and Denver news outlets. “We both have extra-strong brands, we do 53 hours of news per week. At every turn, it was “we do the same thing.”

Moreno, 41, from Chickasha, OK, speaks with undisguised awe of her predecessor/mentor in the Denver job. “Those are impossible shoes to fill but I can’t think of a more incredible journalist to learn from. There’s no replacing Patti Dennis, you just don’t.” (In fact, Dennis has made it clear she intends to be in the control room for breaking news, overseeing the coverage. Moreno is undaunted.)

“There’s no bigger station than 9News. We often watch their pieces in morning meetings. Patti and I have known each other 2½ years,” through Gannett conferences. “We hit it off from the get-go. We’re both Okies, both have two daughters (hers are ages 7 and 4). We immediately bonded.”

Besides Oklahoma roots, the two share an appreciation for similar on-air talent. “There have been several people along the way that she’s hired who I hoped to hire, two in San Antonio (her previous station) who she had in her shop.”

Moreno embraces social media and digital coverage — “I know it’s the future, but I also like and enjoy it” — but has no immediate priorities to push here, even as the station’s share of the local news audience has declined from record-setting high ratings in past decades. “It is such an incredibly strong newsroom. There is nothing broken there.”

Christy Moreno must be an up-and-comer in the Gannett ranks. She’s about to make the jump from Nielsen market No. 61, Knoxville, which serves 515,190 people, to market No. 17, Denver with 1,565,760. At the same time, she’ll take over one of the most successful newsrooms in the country in terms of ratings, a station that has been dominant in the market’s news contests for decades.

And she’ll succeed a much honored veteran who was in place for most of that time, Patti Dennis, who has been bumped up to a VP-recruiting post for the corporation.

KUSA last week named Moreno, news director at Gannett’s WBIR in Knoxville, as its next news boss, the first change in the newsroom’s top job in 18 years. A number of internal candidates were passed over for the post.

At WBIR, she led the staff to win a National Edward R. Murrow award for Overall Excellence for a small market station. Moreno joined WBIR in 2012 from Gannett’s San Antonio station where she was assistant news director.

Announcing the appointment, KUSA’s Mark Cornetta said, “Christy’s strong leadership skills, record of success and innovative ideas are just what we need to continue serving as Colorado’s news leader. She brings a multiscreen approach to the newsroom and is committed to our tradition of world-class coverage.”

Holly Gauntt, VP and news director for ABC affiliate KOMO-TV in Seattle, has been named news director for Fox31 and KWGN, the Tribune combo in Denver. She will join the station in early December.

In an announcement, general manager Peter Maroney said while at KOMO, “her newscasts consistently outperformed competitors in key ratings periods. She also built an award-winning investigative team and successfully branded KOMO-TV as the Problem Solver Station, creating a strong commitment to advocacy and investigative journalism.”

From the release:
““We are thrilled to bring Holly Gauntt back home to Colorado with the vast experience and terrific reputation she has gained over nearly three decades in some of the most competitive television markets in the country, said President and General Manager Peter Maroney. “Holly is passionate in her respect and appreciation for local television news and the professionals who report it. She is also a passionate fan of her hometown Denver Broncos, so it’s a bonus that we get her out of Seahawks country and back home here she belongs.”

Long-time 9News morning anchor Kyle Dyer, for 18 years a fixture of the Denver morning TV scene, will leave the wake-up newscast to become a part-timer in July under a new multi-year contract.

Dyer will anchor the 11 a.m. and noon newscasts at KUSA and will provide taped pieces for the morning shows under a new deal she requested from management.

“We offered her (a contract) to stay on fulltime,” News Director Patti Dennis said. “She wanted to renew her contract but in a different role, citing family obligations. She’ll no longer have to come in at 3 a.m.”

Her daughters are now 11 and 9, Dyer said, with increasing homework and after-school activities. “It’s hard to be present. It’s something I’ve thought about the last couple of years.” Additionally, she’s been keeping “these weird hours” since December 1993, even before she landed at KUSA.

The adjustment “will be just as weird for viewers” as it will be for her, Dyer said. But she reminds those who have had morning coffee with her for nearly two decades, “I’ll be there on tape.”

Amelia Earhart, Channel 9 traffic reporter and pilot, is leaving KUSA when her contract is up in April to devote herself to aviation. She made the announcement on her Facebook page.

“It was good timing ahead of the around-the-world flight,” she said Monday. She’ll be on the air until mid-April. The flight, about 100 hours over 14-17 days, is slated for June, depending on weather. Her Channel 9 managers “made it clear fill-in options are open” and 9News will be covering the flight. “We are going to livestream from the cockpit, do interviews from the plane,” Earhart said, noting she’ll be the youngest woman to fly a single-engine around the world as she retraces the route of her hero.

“Now through June, my focus will be on flight training, planning, and preparation for the around the world flight. Beyond the global adventure, I have several opportunities to promote aviation, aerospace and the pursuit of passion and adventure,” she wrote on Facebook.

CBS4 has a new toy and it’s not just the engineering staff that’s geeking out. The station hopes this techno feature will juice the weekday morning show. Instead of just saying, “you’ll need an ice scraper,” they can show you an HD TV screen with dew point data in the back of a Chevy truck.

The mobile weatherlab is a high-tech, modified Chevy Suburban that combines the features of a satellite truck, a microwave relay truck and mobile cellular technology. That means mountains and canyons won’t be a problem when it comes to sending signals back to the station. There’s an HD infrared camera mounted on the front (with mini-windshield wiper) so the vehicle can transmit while driving. And the weathermobile can go off-road, an advantage in situations like the mountain wildfires.

(Chevy has a sponsorship deal with the station but the news folks aren’t required to use the name Chevy every time they refer to the lab). Recent hire Justin McHeffey works an iPad to update images displayed on a large HD screen under the hatchback. The van only seats two because there’s a weather center, with desk, chair and computer screens, in what would be the backseat.Read more…

Forgive Channel 9 for trumpeting its own anniversary during Sunday night’s newscast. The story, by Gary Shapiro, duly noted that the station’s history reflects Denver’s history, from dirt roads to streetcars, from radio to TV and beyond.

The milestone is not exactly news, but it is noteworthy in cool spots the station is running through the month. The then-and-now spots, with audio from 1970s promo material, are a kick. There’s a baby-faced Shapiro and Patti Dennis, side-by-side with their current selves. Ed Sardella, “Stormy” Rottman, Carl Akers and other veterans, on the left huddled around clunky vintage computer terminals in the old Bannock Street basement, in the building that’s now Rocky Mountain PBS. On the right, current staff in the much more plush digs on Speer Blvd. On the left, giant satellite trucks and bulky shoulder-mounted cameras, on the right, iPhone and iPad.

Check out the anniversary spots by Robert Springer, Drew Sidener, Andy Schaeffer and Tommy Collier, here and here.

KUSA-Channel 9 revamped its newsroom and website organization today. First order of business: the TV news, the online sites, the Gannett newspapers, USA Today, 23 TV stations, all will henceforth be known as Information Centers.

KUSA News Director Patti Dennis wrote in a memo to staff: “I believe KUSA sets the curve for the entire Gannett Company on fast, accurate, thorough distribution of news and information on the many platforms of the 9news Network.”

Part of the upheaval has required all newsroom employees to “begin to write, shoot, stream, etc. to make sure we are moving news and information as fast and as accurately as possible,” Dennis wrote. Asking old-school talent to hoist a camera, or making wizened camera operators upload digital video isn’t easy. But it’s the new age.

Joanne Ostrow has been watching TV since before "reality" required quotation marks. "Hill Street Blues" was life-changing. If Dickens, Twain or Agatha Christie were alive today, they'd be writing for television. And proud of it.